I’ve been hard at work on a lot of things, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have time to keep track of the zany world of tech and humanity. Mark Starling and the crew at First News 570 reported on these stories.

DOWNLOADING MUSIC IS NOW OBSOLETE AS USERS TURN TO STREAMING
Apple is announcing that they are announcing the shut down its iTunes Download Service some time in 2019. Meaning, that the service will not precisely shutdown in 2019, but Apple will announce a shutdown date. Apparently, today’s music listeners prefer to stream their music instead of downloading it and taking up precious space. Best Buy stops selling CDs, and now Apple will no longer sell downloadable mp3s. What’s next?Read more

WE’LL NEVER LEARN PEPPER THE ROBOT, LEADS HUMANS DOWN DARK HALLWAYS
I really like museums and nothing beats the Smithsonian. It’s in DC, it’s a big multi-museum complex on the mall, and it’s free. Unfortunately, every museum has dark corners, hallways, and less explored exhibits. Instead of sending out humans to cheerfully greet museum patrons, the Smithsonian is instead employing Pepper, the humanoid robot, to roam the Smithsonian’s galleries and encourage tourists to visit some of the museums less frequented areas. 25 other Peppers were donated by SoftBank and thinks the experimental program will have museum goers visit other areas. theVerge likes to note, that the last time a robot made headlines in DC, it pitched itself in a fountain ending its own life.Read more

ALEXA WILL TEACH YOUR KIDS MANNERS, FOR A FEE
When my oldest kid was younger, her manners were impeccable. She pleased, and thank you’d with the best of ‘em. Now, at age 10, she has no manners. They gradually deteriorated over time the longer she hung out with riff-raff. Amazon’s Alexa’s new politeness features will be available in the US around May 9th, and will encourage kids to use Please at the end of voice commands. The new Magic Word feature, as it’s being called, will also include the ability to disable voice activated shopping and set bedtime hours when Alexa will not accept voice commands. This politeness comes at a cost however if you want upgrades including the ability for Alexa to respond in your favorite cartoon character’s voice.Read more

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